


Fresh Scars

by Kiiratam



Series: The Weissian Conspiracy [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Bumbleby Week 2019, Canon Compliant, F/F, Yangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 04:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19881703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: After the Battle of Haven, Yang receives an unwelcome visitor in the pre-dawn hours.Takes place between Volumes 5 and 6. (My BMBLB fic index)Written for Bumbleby Week 2019. Day 2: Meeting the parents. I had too much angst to limit it to one fic.





	Fresh Scars

Lying in bed, in the house in Mistral, Yang Xiao Long couldn't sleep. Too much had happened that night - she wasn't sure how Ruby was managing to sleep so soundly. They'd found one of the Relics, driven off Salem's lackeys, saved Haven Academy from the White Fang bombs - been abandoned by Raven. Again.

  
And Blake was back. For how long, Yang didn't know. And that, more than anything else, twisted her gut and made her missing arm ache.

  
She checked her scroll. Nearly dawn. Another sleepless night. Yang couldn't decide if she hated the insomnia or the nightmares more. It didn't really matter, she realized. She would just keep staggering from one to the other unless something changed. Like making a mistake, and winding up dead. The quiet of the grave sounded horrifyingly alluring at the moment.

  
Her scroll buzzed, drawing her attention back to it. One new message. Was it Blake? She'd stayed with the Menagerie militia, and was due in the morning to meet with Ozpin, Qrow, and everyone else. Maybe she couldn't sleep either.

  
Yang choked down her surge of excitement. What could it possibly say? <Hey, Yang, sorry for abandoning you at your lowest point. Be my friend again?>

  
She started to close her scroll when it buzzed again. _Screw me, it can't make things worse._ Yang opened her messages.

  
It wasn't from Blake. The sender was just identified with the emblem of the White Fang. <Be in the courtyard behind the house in five minutes if you ever want to see Blake again. Come alone.>

  
The next message just read, <Four minutes.>

  
Yang bolted up, grabbing her arm from the charging station and socketed it on. She looked down at her pajamas. They'd do. She pulled her boots on, stomping to get them comfortable and combat ready. Her scroll flashed with another message. <Three minutes.>

  
Ruby stirred in her sleep. "Yang? Wha...?"

  
"It's nothing. Go back to sleep." She kissed Ruby's forehead. " I love you, sis."

  
Mumbling something that vaguely sounded like "I love you too", Ruby closed her eyes, and dropped back off to sleep.

  
Again her scroll buzzed. Two minutes left. Yang left it there and ran from the bedroom. No time to the stairs. She vaulted the balcony, hoping the noise wouldn't wake anyone up. Unlocked the sliding door, toreit open, rushed outside into the courtyard.

  
False dawn filled the sky, making the shadows even deeper. Faunus eyes would have the advantage here, but couldn't be helped. She stood in the center of the courtyard, light on the balls of her feet, turning to look all around.

  
"I've had a long day, Adam, full of people running away from me. If you want to talk, talk. If you want to kill me, go ahead and try. But get it over with." Yang balled her fists at her sides, trying to force the shaking to stop.

  
"You're not too bright, Miss Xiao Long. " The voice came from the shadows on her left, and she turned to face it. A large shadow emerged, walking towards her. Too bulky to be Adam.

  
"Where's Blake? If you've hurt her, I'll-"

  
The shadow kept walking closer. "You'll do what? You're just a scared little girl, alone in the darkness, with nowhere to run."

  
Yang flexed her metal arm, and the shotgun barrel popped out. She aimed it at the shadow, only a few long strides away. "Where. Is. Blake?"

  
The shadow stopped its stalk forward. "Safe with her mother, I expect. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Something stupid, apparently."

  
Yang squinted at the shadow, beginning to pick out features. "Ghira?"

  
"Mr. Belladonna will do. "

  
Yang kept her gunarm trained on him. "No, if we passed in the street and you said hello, then I'd call you Mr. Belladonna. You lure me out here in the middle of the night, using your own daughter as bait? I can call you whatever I want."

  
"You know, my wife won't shut up about you. Kali thinks you're the bee's knees. She spent a lot of time talking to that idiot friend of Blake's, Sun, prying all the details loose. "

  
"So what?"

  
Ghira glowered at her. "She says that you're special to my daughter."

  
"Not special enough for her to stick around. "

  
"Understand this. My daughter was only doing what she thought was best. It's what we learned in the early days. It's easy to crack down on one protest. It's harder when there are teams putting up posters and signs all over town."

  
"Oh, so she only abandoned me for my own good, is that it? " Yang detached her arm and flung it at Ghira, striking him in the chest. "It was a _strategic decision_ to leave me to drown in a pool of misery! Well, that just makes everything okay!" She stomped forward, glaring up at him. " It's okay that she didn't say goodbye! It's okay that I didn't know where she was, or how to find her, or if Adam had found her! That's all fine now!"

  
Ghira folded his arms, matched her gaze. "She hurt you. I'm trying to explain why she did it, not excuse her."

  
"Fine. Keep talking."

  
"We lived on the move, going from town to town, organizing for Faunus Rights. If the government cracked down, we had to move on. If not that, in a rush to the site of the latest atrocity. Trying to keep our people safe." Ghira stooped, picked up Yang's arm, offered it to her. She didn't take it. She didn't trust herself with a weapon at the moment. He continued, "You just ran down here because you thought Blake was in danger. What was your escape plan, if things went against you?"

  
_Die_. "I didn't have one."

  
"We couldn't work that way. We always had multiple rendezvous points set up, every time we went into town. We knew we wouldn't win every time, so we had to have contingency plans. That's what Blake grew up with - always knowing the escape routes."

  
"Fine, you taught her to run."

  
"I taught her to _pick her battles_. Did you ever learn that? Do you have more in that skull than a bundle of hate?" He rapped the side of her head with his knuckles.

  
"Don't touch me." She could feel the blood pound through her veins, see Mercury's smug face, Neon's bratty smile, longed for the weight of Ember Celica on her arms.

  
"Or what? You'll hit me? I've been beaten by the best, been turned into a bloody pulp in alleys all over the world. I can take a hit."

  
Yang took a step back, trying to buy herself the distance to think. "Fine. You win. I'm an idiot who just charges in." She held up her stump. "I've got proof of that. Is that what you wanted to hear?" A sudden thought struck her. "Aren't you the same way? You came here confront me, because you think I'm a threat to your daughter. So you charged in, to take the hits so Blake wouldn't have to."

  
Ghira held out her arm again. "You're starting to catch on. Maybe you do have a brain."

  
Yang took her arm back, socketed it into place. "And what do you think Blake would think of you doing this? Do you think she'd appreciate you trying to protect her?"

  
"It doesn't matter, as long as she's safe."

  
"Yes it does!" Yang stepped forward, trying to stare him down. "That's what Blake did to me! She tried to protect me! But I didn't want her protection, I wanted _her_! I needed _her_! And she wasn't there!" She couldn't really see anymore, just a blurry mess of tears. "You can't just decide that for someone you love! That's what Adam does! He makes the choices, and everyone is just supposed to blindly follow along!"

  
"Everyone stopped following him tonight."

  
"Because they saw what it would cost them. Gunshots and stab wounds. They had an easy choice. You and Blake - the wounds you caused aren't as obvious. But don't try to tell me they don't hurt. And they don't heal nearly as fast." Yang drooped, slide down to sit on the ground. "I'm so tired. But if I sleep, I get the nightmares. Everyone I know, everyone I love, turning and leaving. Because it's not worth it to them. Because seeing me like this hurts too much. Because they have to go save the world. Because they're dead and only memories. Because they've been running their whole lives, and don't know how to stop. And in the end, it's just me and Adam. And I go through it all over again." She wiped her eyes, saw Ghira crouched down in front of her.

  
"We took the White Fang back from him. His power has been broken. Blake and Sun drove him off. She isn't afraid of him anymore."

  
"Yes, she is. She used to cry in her sleep at Beacon, pleading with him to stop. That kind of pain doesn't heal back to the way it was. My dad still cries over Ruby's mom's death. Every year. He's just gotten better at dealing with it. Blake's gotten better at dealing with Adam? Good. But I promise you, she's not healed."

  
"You're wiser than I gave you credit for, Miss Xiao Long."

  
"Didn't take a lot. You don't seem to like me very much."

  
"I don't. But Blake does. Be good to my daughter, Miss Xiao Long. Maybe the two of you can find your balance together." Ghira stood up, and blended back into the shadows of the courtyard.

  
Yang sat there on the ground, hugging her legs and waiting for the dawn.

  
When it arrived, it was glorious, a bloom of orange-red light in a golden sky. She settled back on her hands, natural and artificial, to watch it, letting it warm her face. She could feel the tears drip down her cheeks, but wasn't sure if she was crying at her pain, or the beauty of the morning.

  
"Yang? Are you okay?" Weiss sat down next to her, wearing a silvery dressing gown, and holding a cup of steaming coffee.

  
"No, not really. But we won. We lived to fight another day. How's the side?"

  
"Sore. Can't say I recommend giant barbed spears of molten glass, as a way of dying."

  
Yang laughed. "I'll start a list. Any way you would recommend, so far?"

  
Weiss grimaced. "Not a single one."

  
"We'll just have to keep looking." They sat, watching the sun rise, Weiss sipping on her coffee.

  
Yang levered herself to her feet, brushing gravel off her pajamas.. "Well, exotic deaths aren't beating down the door, so we'll just have to keep living until they get here." Yang offered her hand to Weiss. She took it, and was pulled to her feet in a silvery swirl. "Breakfast?"


End file.
